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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJEFFREY M
acMILLAN |
For The Washington PostMollie Frace, left, and Christopher Balcastro use a tablet to order food for their table at the Chili's restaurant in Timonium, Md.

When Martin Hines takes his 8-year-old daughter for a weekday lunch at the Chili’s Bar &
Grill in Timonium, Md., this summer, he’s looking for quick service so he can return to work.

Instead of waiting for an employee to bring his check, he prefers to swipe his credit card on an
electronic tablet placed at each table, which also prints his receipt. During the meal, his
daughter usually plays games on the tablet for a flat fee of 99 cents — a price that Hines is
willing to pay to keep her entertained.

During the past few months, Chili’s has installed 45,000 tablets at more than 800 U.S.
locations. Although customers are still visited by a human waiter, they can use these devices to
order certain items — desserts and drinks, once the waiter has verified their age — as well as to
pay checks or play games.

The tablets are intended to alleviate the burden on waiters by automatically relaying orders to
the kitchen and expediting payment, Chili’s said.

Hines has used only the payment and game functions of the tablet, but on his next visit, he
might use it to order, he said.

Customers such as Hines are still getting comfortable with table-side tablets; although about 80
percent of customers use at least one of the functions, a minority reject tablets.

And Chili’s has the added challenges of training employees to manage a new technology and
integrating the software with existing systems.

Table-side tablets are proliferating in fast-casual restaurants. In December, Applebee’s
announced it would install 100,000 tablets at its U.S. restaurants this year.

Ziosk, the Dallas-based tech company that builds tablets for Chili’s, is working on similar
devices for Uno’s Pizzeria and Red Robin, among other chains.

Chili’s Timonium location has had the tablets for about three months. Ziosk pockets the fee for
games, covering the cost of Chili’s subscription; any extra revenue is split between the two
companies.

Manager Eric Halfpap said he thinks his waiters have been generating more tips since tablets
were installed because service has been quicker. Tablet orders are automatically relayed to a
screen in the kitchen, which also displays orders that waiters take and enter into Chili’s
traditional point-of-sale system. If customers opt to pay at the tablet, waiters don’t have to
process the check.

Waiters “can now help other people out” because they have fewer orders to process, Halfpap said.
“They could spend that time doing something else — increase the amount of time they can spend
chatting with customers — rather than having someone wave you down and say, ‘Here’s the
check.'"

Even so, Ziosk has resisted offering one feature — a call-the-waiter button — out of concern
that it might overwhelm a restaurant staff.

Across all locations with tablets, about 70 percent of customers use them to pay, especially to
split checks two or three ways, Chili’s said.

The tablets also have helped Chili’s collect customer-satisfaction data, said chief marketing
officer Krista Gibson. When users pay the check, they are prompted to fill out a five- to
seven-part questionnaire about food quality and service. Before the tablets, paper receipts
directed customers to fill out the survey online, and there was about a 1 percent response rate.
Now, Gibson said, the response rate is closer to 25 percent, averaging about 500 responses per
restaurant each week.

Clarke Zeiler and David Mullen, who stop by Chili’s in Timonium a couple of times a month to
discuss work, never have used the tablets and do not plan to do so soon. Mullen said he would
rather interact with the person he’s eating with, or the waiter.

“I’m trying to go more old-school,” Mullen said. “I’m pro-technology but, sometimes, honestly,
it’s making people decline in social skills.”